More than three years after the worst returns in British Columbia in decades,  review that took more than two years to complete has determined the future of Fraser River sockeye salmon is 'uncertain.'

Commissioner Bruce Cohen was hired in November of 2009, to investigate stock declines and suggest changes to ensure the fishery survives.

While he failed to indentify a 'smoking gun' or single cause for two decades worth of losses, Cohen has made 75 recommendations.

Several indicate more research is needed, but he's already determined climate change, salmon farming and the federal government's complacency are cause for concern.

He also identifies a conflict of interest, saying the Department of Fisheries and Oceans should not be promoting salmon farms, considering it is also responsible for policing them.

A key recommendation is to freeze net-pen production in the Discovery Islands until September 30th, 2020.

While he's careful not to blame front-line staff, cohen is critical of the Conservative government for prematurely implementing changes to the fisheries act in June,  which could harm this already fragile eco-system.

Depending on who you ask, Cohen is a visionary, or a failure.
Former Conservative MP, now BC Conservative Party leader John Cummins says he was part of the government when this report was commissioned and Cohen has not fulfilled the mandate set out for him.

"Instead of being remembered as a man who set the direction for the department for the next 50 years is going to be remembered, if he is remembered at all, as a complete failure."

But Gwen Barlee with the Wilderness Committee says cohen is finally shedding light on the federal government's failure to protect the environment.

"They radically weakened the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, so now you have 492 environmental assessments in BC that the federal government was screening six months ago and those are gone. Poof!"

Meanwhile, Stewart Hawthorn of the BC Salmon Farmers Association is downplaying concerns raised by cohen about the impact of that industry on wild salmon.

"What Justice Cohen actually said was that he's very impressed by the quality and the quantity of information around the health of our stock and he's also said that he thinks more research needs to be done and we're very supportive of that."

Hawthorn claims the freeze recommended by Cohen simply points out the need for farmers to be responsible.

Saying he believes in the leadership of Premier Christy Clark, Sukh Dhaliwal has made it official: he wants to be a BC Liberal MLA for the riding of Surrey-Panorama.

The former Liberal MP is finally answering questions about a letter he wrote in 2008.

Dhaliwal wrote to a US District Court Judge on parlimentary letterhead saying he had met Ranjit Cheema at community engagements, and that the one-time Bindy Johal associate appeared fully rehabilitated.

This past May, Cheema was gunned down in South Vancouver, in an apparent gang hit.

REPORTER:"Do you still believe though that he was rehabilitated?"

"I made those statements at the time. I haven't had any...interactions with him or of the others. I haven't followed up so I can't comment."
 
As to why he wrote the letter in the first place, Dhaliwal says it was a request from Cheema's family.

The New Democrat who has spent the most on travel of any MLA so far this fiscal year says there's a good reason for the big tab.

Skeena MLA Robin Austin says about 19-thousand dollars worth of his 54-thousand dollar travel bill was for a trip to Sri Lanka.

"I was invited by speaker Bill Barisoff to join him in attending the Commonwealth parliamentary association conference in Sri Lanka, which actually is where my parents were born, so I know the country quite well." 

BIll Barisoff is also the speaker of the house who approved the extra travel expenditure.

It doesn't appear he's filed his own papers yet though as the trip is not reflected in his own expenses for the first half of the year.

Barisoff is not available for comment today. 

A lawyer with the Pivot Legal Society says a video of three security guards and a man in a wheelchair raises definite questions about use of force.

Doug King says the tape shows a man in a wheelchair approached by Genesis Security guards at Pacific Centre.

"We're not sure what happened before then, and if he'd committed a criminal offence or not, but at the point that the tape catches him, there's this confrontation between the two, the security guard threatens him, uses threatening language, and basically says that he's gonna throw him on the ground and try to injure him and then he does just that."

King says the man doesn't seem to be resisting or trying to flee. 

He says he wants to get in touch with the man and maybe file some complaints with the Justice Ministry.

The Vice-President of Genesis Security says the incident is under investigation.

Ashley Meehan says,

"The guards themselves are dealing with a chronic offender who was placed under arrest for theft or shoplifting I should say, and he's known to them and to the police for being quite agressive and violent at times."

Meehan says the man wasn't complying with the guards' requests.

He says the guards deal with arrests all the time.

Meehan wouldn't speculate on any consequences the guards could face if they're found to be at fault -- adding the company has a procedure that applies to all employees.

He says he's not aware of any issues with the guards in the past.

The federal opposition is urging the Conservative government to act on the recomendations in the Cohen Inquiry report.

However West Coast Fisheries critic Finn Donnelly says the Conservative government was undermining the report long before it ever came out.

"But the Conservatives have been dismantling environmental protections and regulations through the use of their omnibus budget bills. They gutted the Fisheries act before they even heard the recomendations from the commission and there was no consultation. At a time when we need fisheries science more than ever the conservatives are slashing scientific capacity in the Department of Fisheries and Oceans."

Donnelly admits the inquiry is essentially toothless but says the report was so vast in scope the government simply can't ignore it.
 
"The Conservative government must act on these recomendations they must impliment them it was 26-million dollars spent on this study over two years, heard from hundreds of witnesses, thousands of pages of input, we need action from this government."

Donnelly says if the sockeye salmon stocks are to recover the government must act on the cohen report.

He says the report has absolutely pointed out the huge concerns around farmed salmon, and climate change.

It seems the rainy weather may be to thank for giving fire crews in Vancouver and Surrey a fairly quiet Halloween night.

Vancouver Fire Captain Gabe Roder describes the evening as having been, "uncharacteristically quiet," with some small incidents and a garage fire.
 
A replica Lambourghini was inside a garage at 3500 Williams Street and is a write-off.

In Surrey, Chief Len Garis says it was a pretty ordinary evening with, among other things, a couple of mailbox fires, and a dumpster fire, "Really, it just doesn't seem to be like there was any activity associated with the evening. But, it was an extremely wet night as well, right?"

Garis says since 2005, crews have only had a handful of events each Halloween night after the city began regulating the discharge of fireworks. 

A 21-year old man is dead in what appears to be a gang hit in East Vancouver.

Police say it happened at 10:30 last night in the 3200-block of East 6th Avenue, between Windermere and Rupert.

The victim apparently answered a knock at the back door and was shot.

Police say the victim is known to them and early indications are that the shooting was targetted but no suspects have been identified.

The victim's name has not been released.

A new survey suggests more British Columbians favour ending the prohibition of marijuana.

The Angus Reid poll shows three out of four people support taxing and regulating the drug.

That's up a whopping six percentage points from a year ago.

Pollster Mario Canseco says it reveals a growing distance between public opinion and the law.
 
"What's interesting is it's really hard over the past couple of years to get three out of four British Columbians to agree on anything. This is one of the issue where we are definitely different from the rest of the country. There's high support in other areas of Canada to legalize marijuana, but it's not as high as it is in B.C."

He says it's especially signficiant, considering Washington State is set to vote on a referendum on whether to decriminalize marijuana next week.

The BC Restaurant and Food Services Association is calling for a halt to the expansion of  Vancouver's food cart program.

The city has about 100 food carts right now, and plans to add on another 30.

The Association's Ian Tostenson says the market can't support it.

"We believe that to continue adding food carts is just going to continue to hurt both the food cart operators and also bricks and mortar restaurants that have a significantly higher economic reality, and obligation,  around leases and property taxes than the mobile food carts"

He plans to set up a meeting with the City of Vancouver.  Councilor, Heather Deal, says Tostensen has been invited to meet with city staff many times.

Local food truck owners say while they are concerned about increasing numbers, they are not asking for a ban. 

Tacofino's Sarb Mund says he would like the city to pause to see how existing trucks are doing before adding new ones.

City Councilor, Heather Deal, says new licenses are a done deal but will not be put in place without the consideration of existing vendors.  She says staff are looking at the number of trucks downtown and looking at other potential locations.

Deal says a ban on licenses will not be considered.

You can put it down as a campaign promise from opposition leader Adrian Dix, who says an NDP government would not use public money for partisan ads.

Dix says it's not the way taxpayer dollars should be spent.

"Not to spend public funds on partisan ads, that would be our policy. That wouldn't mean an end to government advertising, because there are reasons why the government has to inform the public about all kinds of things, but I think partisan ads voted for out of a minister of finance's budget or whatever, that's probably not a good idea." 

Dix says valid exceptions include advertising key points of the annual provincial budget. 

RCMP say no charges will be laid against a 14 year old bantam hockey player from Nanaimo, following two serious on-ice incidents.

One incident involved a brutal body-check.

In the other, the boy used his stick to spear a Saanich player, causing serious internal injuries.

Police say in talking to witnesses and reviewing video, they have failed to indentify "...any evidence of criminality".

The man who was shot dead last night at his East Vancouver home was Alexander Julian Liang.

Police have now confirmed his identity as the victim of the city's 8th homicide of the year.

The targeted hit happened at the 21-year-old's home on east Sixth Avenue and Rupert.

Court records say Liang was facing various charges.

They include robbery, unlawful confinement and use of a fake firearm, stemming from an incident in Burnaby in 2011.

He was also accused of drug-related offences in January and July of that year.

So far no arrests have been made.

After seven months of bargaining, BC's health science professionals are taking a strike vote.

They provide diagnostic, clinical, and rehabilitation services.

Talks with the Health Employer's Association of BC broke down yesterday.

They're seeking a two percent wage hike this year and next.

The strike vote wraps up mid-month.

14 thousand workers in five health-care unions are eligable to vote.

ICBC says it is restructuring.

Five members of ICBC's executive have had to leave, and two executive positions have been eliminated.

Four vice-president roles have been cut.

The company says once the restructuring is finished, 250 positions overall will have been eliminated -- with a majority among management.

It says the cuts bring staffing below 2008 levels and go beyond recommendations from the Government's review that happened earlier this year.

Most of the cuts will happen in 2012.

The company adds it will be working to finalize further changes -- and will bring compensation policy in line with the Government's new guidelines.

Metro Vancouver says the potential fly ash problem at the Cache Creek landfill might be much larger than initially thought.

1800 tonnes of ash that failed hazardous waste tests was shipped from a Burnaby incinerator in July and August this summer. 

Covanta the operator of the incinerator has also failed to submit tests for those two months as required, they arrived months late when Wastech, who run the Cache Creek landfill, demanded they be turned in.

Now Metro solid waste manager Paul Henderson says tests from ash at the landfill, delivered almost two years prior to July, have also failed.

"Wastech sampled in two locations that are from around November 2010 and those intial test results showed leachable cadmium above the threshold for disposable municipal solid waste and so we are working with Wastech and the Ministry of Environment to develop a more extensive sampling program."

Henderson says testing will now broaden to cover 25,000 tonnes of fly ash in the landfill.

"We are just at the very beginning of determining what the sampling program will look like, and the analysis program, to characterize the material and then determine what is the best way to manage that material all the information we have to date shows no impact on human health and the environment related to either the older fly ash or of course the new fly ash from July and August."

Henderson says the weather at Cache Creek might be one cause for high levels of cadmium in the ash.

"Prior to the fly ash being shipped to Cache Creek it was managed at the Coquitlam landfill there we have lots of data that show over time the fly ash became less leachable Cache Creek we don't have that history of data and so we don't know at this point how the fly ash reacts in place at the landfill over time."

Cache Creek Mayor John Ranta says the news catches him by surprise noting there is 25,000 tonnes of fly ash in what is called the mono-fill.

"Golder have taken 238 tests from different grid locations in the monofill so far 22 of those tests have shown leachable cadmium in excess of what is permitted."

Ranta says right off the bat it puts into question all the fly ash testing processes undertaken when the ash is produced at the incinerator.

"It brings into question I guess the process that is applied to the fly ash. What the ministry believes and led us to believe at the time we accepted the fly ash for disposal is that the Westfix process would render the heavy metals in the fly ash inert."

The Ministry of Environment is now investigating after CKNW broke the story about the toxic ash produced by a Burnaby waste to energy incinerator.

B-C Hydro is getting some more time to develop its integrated resource plan, which will lay out how it plans to meet BC's electricity needs for the next 20 years.

The utility was supposed to submit the plan by December third, but that deadline has been extended until August third.

The Energy Ministry says the extension is needed because power supply deals are still being worked out with proponents of liquid natural gas plants on the north coast. 

This is the second time Hydro has been given an extension to submit the plan.

Transit police have just confirmed the device on the skytrain tracks was an explosive.

They can't say what damage if any it may have caused if it had detonated on the tracks.

RCMP bomb experts will detonate it for safety.

Transit police are now trying to determine a motive after the explosive device was found on skytrain tracks in Surrey.
 
Spokesperson Anne Drennan describes the device spotted by a skytrain passenger.

"It looks like it is either a small fire extinguisher or a small propane tank it has straps and wires sticking out of it and it is lying right on the track area between Scott Road station and Gateway station."

When asked how the device could have been placed on the track Drennan said "It is possible it could have been thrown up onto the tracks that is not impossible I am told. We are not sure at all of course at this point as to how it got there."

She says police are reviewing surveillance video.

Skytrain is now running again between Scott road and Gateway stations.

Police are appealing for witnesses.

Drennan says if anyone on King George Boulevard or on skytrain saw anything suspicious in the area today they can call police at 604.516.3500

ICBC and COPE Local 378 have a tentative contract in place.

Members of the union, representing inside workers, staged a few rounds of job action earlier in the year.

Workers still have to vote.

The union is recommending acceptance.

All job action will now cease as of this weekend.

BC Health Minister Margaret MacDiarmid wants health care workers to either get a flu shot, or be wearing a mask, as of December first.

"Steps will have to be taken if people won't cooperate with that, because we're talking about patient safety and that is our top priority; it has to be our top priority, it has to be our top priority,it has to be the ministry's top priority and it has to be the facilities as well."
 
The minister got her flu shot today.

Right now, about 50 percent of health care workers get a shot.

A Coquitlam RCMP officer who claims he suffered public humiliation when pictures of him on a fetish website were made public has filed what his lawyer is calling the 'biggest breach of privacy case in the history of Canada.'

Corporal Jim Brown is suing four people including prominent Vancouver lawyer Cameron Ward.

Brown's lawyer Bryan Baynham says Ward has been repeatedly asked to stop linking the Mountie to serial killer Robert Pickton.

"My client has absolutely nothing to do with the Picktons other than doing some surveillance as part of an ongoing investigation. He had a very minimal part in the Pickton investigation."

Ward and the main defendant Grant Wakefield have three weeks to file a response.

The other two defendants have not been identified.
 
Brown is currently being investigated by the RCMP for professional misconduct, but there's no proof he committed any crimes.

Ward has declined CKNW's request for comment.